JK Rowling pseudonym payout

JK Rowling has received a substantial payout at the High Court from a law firm that breached her confidentiality by revealing she was writing under a pseudonym. The Harry Potter author has donated the money to charity.

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JK Rowling has announced she will donate all global net royalties due to her from sales of The Cuckoo's Calling to The Soldiers' Charity over the next three years.

The donations will date from July 14, the day that her pseudonym Robert Galbraith's true identity was made known.

This donation is being made to The Soldiers' Charity partly as a thank you to the Army people who helped me with research, but also because writing a hero who is a veteran has given me an even greater appreciation and understanding of exactly how much this charity does for ex-servicemen and their families, and how much that support is needed.

I always intended to give The Soldiers' Charity a donation out of Robert's royalties but I had not anticipated him making the bestseller list a mere three months after publication - indeed, I had not counted on him ever being there!

The charity thanked her for the "tremendous show of support" and said the donations would make a "huge difference to the lives of thousands of soldiers, former soldiers and their families who are in real need".

The firm has reimbursed JK Rowling's legal costs and made a damages payment to the Soldiers' Charity. Credit: Ian West/PA Wire

Legal firm Russells was found to be responsible for the leak that led to the Sunday Times revealing her as Robert Galbraith, the writer of the crime novel The Cuckoo's Calling.

The firm apologised "unreservedly" in a statement earlier this month, admitting that one of its partners, Chris Gossage, had told his wife's best friend, Judith Callegari, that Galbraith was in fact JK Rowling during a "private conversation".

The author brought proceedings in London's High Court against Mr Gossage and Mrs Callegari, who had gone on to reveal her secret identity during a Twitter exchange with a journalist.